seven broken harts
by Topangamatthews
Summary: It's not that Maya wasn't good at having a boyfriend. It was that Lucas Friar always had a way of making them leave. (based off the hcanon in which lucas always scares maya's boyfriends away, intentionally or not)


(based off the headcanon in which lucas always scares maya's boyfriends away, intentionally or not)

 **i.**

She gets her first boyfriend the summer before ninth grade and Lucas is not happy about it. Not about the fact that she got a boyfriend, oh no. It's about the boyfriend she did get- a guy older than her by two years and one of the acclaimed "bad boys" of their high school. Maya spends half of her time with him, vandalizing public buildings with her artwork (beautiful but still illegal) and the other half telling her friends about it.

"Maya, you're better than that. You know you deserve someone who won't try to get you arrested," he would tell her.

"Don't be such a huckleberry. I'll be fine."

And so he lets her be and tries not to say much anymore regarding the topic of her boyfriend until the one day that Riley calls him to say that Maya almost got arrested. He's able to track him down in an old, broken diner playing pool with his buddies and warns him that if he doesn't stay away from her, he'll take care of him personally.

After the guy breaks up with Maya, explaining that he didn't need to put up with her "nosy ass friends", she decides that maybe Lucas was right in the first place for warning her.

"Please don't say I told you so," she tells Lucas quietly, wrapping her arms around his torso and resting her head on his chest. And he doesn't say anything. He just places a light kiss on her head and smiles to himself. He always liked this Maya a lot better anyways.

 **ii.**

Maya doesn't try to get another boyfriend until months later but much unlike her former interest, this one is shy, an artist named Rodger who she met in class. He never really says much whenever he hangs out with their group ,but instead always glares at Lucas and makes sure to hold Maya's hand or have his arm around her shoulder.

"What do you even see in that guy," he asks her one day while walking home together after school like they always did. She just shrugs and laughs a little before giving him a tiny shove.

Weeks later Rodger ends up breaking up with her and when they all ask her why she says the reason isn't worth repeating. The rumor around school however is that he broke up with her because he felt threatened by Lucas and didn't want to deal with the paranoia the relationship was bringing him. Lucas understands why Maya doesn't want to bring it up ,so he doesn't. Not even when they get voted "Favorite Couple" in the yearbook for the second time in a row.

 **iii.**

During sophomore year, Riley tries to pressure her group of friends into doing the school play, a classic retelling of Sleeping Beauty. "It's gives us graduation credits, community service hours and we get to spend six weeks together," she pleads, practically begging them not to leave her alone. They finally give in and much to everyone's surprise, Maya and Lucas are cast as Aurora and Prince Phillip, with Riley landing the role of Maleficent and Farkle and Zay double cast as the king.

It takes up most of their time, three hours everyday after school and Saturday rehearsals ,but somehow Maya still manages to find a boyfriend. They don't know much about him other than the fact that his name is Gabe and he's a junior ,but every time Maya texts him her face lights up so they don't ask much. "You'll meet him at opening night," she promises and as the day approaches faster, the more excited they get. (Lucas for different reasons, like the fact that he'll be able to finally kiss Maya and for three nights in a row ,but his friends don't need to know that.)

When the day finally does get there, Maya receives a dozen red roses and a hundred compliments ,her face as bright as ever. Lucas is still on a cloud from the ending kiss scene with her, her strawberry lipgloss still lingering on his mouth and driving him crazy. He feels like telling her about his feelings for her but immediately gets the thought out of his head when she sees her boyfriend walk to her backstage.

Lucas tries to avoid them and collect his things to go home until he hears Maya's voice boom loudly from the other side of the stage.

"You're insane! Do you hear me, dumb ass? Insane," she yells, her face upset and hands stuck stiffly to her side. "Trust me, sweetheart. I'd be insane if I decided to stay with you," he yells back, walking away from her. "Have fun with her," he tells Lucas, walking past him and exiting the building.

"Can you believe him," Maya cries, going up to Lucas with her things in her hand. "He said I was cheating on him with you! Doesn't he know what acting is?"

Lucas gives her a slight chuckle and grabs his backpack, offering his arm for her to hold on to and hinting that they should leave. She loops one arm through Lucas' and walks with him, throwing the roses she got in a trash bin outside, looking content afterwards. She doesn't know that they were actually from Lucas but he doesn't make it a point in telling her that.

 **iv.**

Although Lucas was a baseball player, he did not act like the rest of the sexist and stupid pigs that he called his teammates. And he had lived on a farm. He knew exactly what pigs acted like and these guys were much worse. So when Maya announced she was now seeing his co-captain, he had to raise his voice against it.

"Don't do it, Maya. He's a jerk, trust me."

"I can handle myself."

About two weeks later while getting ready for an away game in the locker room, Lucas overhears him commenting something to his other teammates about Maya. Something like "Dude, I'm telling you I can not handle her but tomorrow night after I fuck the brains out of her, we're done." And that's all it takes for Lucas to run over to him and punch him in the face, knocking him down to ground. He ignores the horrified looks and the loud yells cheering for a fight and just focuses on the asshole in front of him. He picks him up and slams him on to the lockers, holding him up from the ground by his collar.

"You stay the fuck away from Maya Hart. Do you understand me," he growls, the entire room quieting down. He nods quickly and holds back a cry, letting Lucas drop him harshly on the ground. The coach comes out of the office and despite Lucas trying to explain the situation, he still ends up suspended from the team and suspended for the next two days at school. It doesn't take long for the word about the "fight" to get around school and promptly to Maya.

When she sees Lucas at Topanga's after school, reading a comic book to himself on the couch looking unaffected by his previous activities, she goes up behind him and wraps her arms around him. "Thank you," she whispers, her voice sounding shaky. He almost asks her if she's okay but she places a kiss on his cheek and he forgets all about it.

 **v.**

The summer before senior year Lucas invites Maya to go with him back to Texas for a month. At first she's reluctant, claiming that there's a great art program she had applied for ,but after finding out that she had been offered admission without financial aid, she decides to go with him after all. She says it's because she wants to get more information about his upbringing to use against him but he knows she's excited to get out of the city for a little bit.

While in Texas they end up going to a classic square dance down at one of the local restaurants. Lucas ends up wearing cowboy boots and a hat, throwing Maya into a fit of giggles at the sight of him. He doesn't tell Maya about how attractive she looks in her red and white gingham top, daisy dukes and cowboy boots but he thinks about it the entire time. Everyone is thinking it. She's new to the town and she's pretty and she's out there dancing on her own for a few songs. It's during one of those songs that a guy, someone Lucas grew up with named Trevor, goes up to Maya to ask her to dance.

Lucas stares at their interaction from one of the tables, gripping his drink tightly as Trevor plays with one of her pigtails and Maya laughs. Just as quickly as their obvious flirting began, it ends just as fast when Maya turns to look at Lucas, pointing at him but still talking to Trevor. He says something and then walks away, leaving Maya with a confused look on her face.

He walks up to where she is in the middle of the dance floor, looking equally parts angry and adorable with arms crossed and lips in a pout. "What happened," he asks her, trying to hide the happiness in his voice from their lost interaction.

"He asked me out on a date, right? And then I tell him that he can pick me up at your house, where I'm staying, and he says that something came up and his mind changed! I don't understand you Texan boys."

He laughs and takes her hand, trying to distract her by dancing to the country song that began to play through the speakers. He knows it's because Trevor was a witness of the incident back in the seventh grade that had gotten him kicked out of school. If he was able to severely injure someone because of something involving his friend, what would happen to someone who hurt someone who Lucas was even closer to?

Neither of them brings up the square dance the rest of the trip and spend their days horseback riding, going on picnics and sleeping under the stars. They are both far too busy with each other to be concerned over something like that.

 **vi.**

No one even knew Maya cared so much about prom, not even her, until it's two weeks away from the big night and it's all she finds herself talking about. The perfect dress she had found on sale, new locations she had heard of for pictures and more specifically, her lack of a date. Riley had received two different prom proposals and ultimately decided on Charlie, thinking of how she had owed him since their eighth grade semi-formal. Zay had asked a freshman girl who was crazy in love with him and Farkle had decided not to ask anyone.

"I just don't understand why someone hasn't asked me," she tells Lucas, resting her head on his shoulder and oblivious to the stares from the other guys in the room. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary for Lucas and Maya to be hugging or touching hands or even giving each other an occasional kiss on the cheek ,but other people just didn't understand how they could act that way around each other and not be together.

"You don't need a date," Lucas replies, rubbing small circles around the small of her back.

"But I just always envisioned my prom with a date and everyone else has been asked out and I just want to be ,too."

Although he knew Maya hadn't been implying that he ask her out, the next day he waits outside of the art room until the end of the period. When she steps out the first thing she sees is Lucas with a cowboy hat and a crowd of a few people that have stopped in the hallway to see what was about to happen. She bites her lip to keep from laughing as he walks up to her, taking her hand in his and playfully going down on one knee.

"Miss Maya Penelope Hart, will you give me the greatest honor of being my date to prom," he asks, a small laugh laced within every word. He takes his hat off and gives her a sunflower, reminding her of the ones she said she adored over roses during their trip to Texas.

"You're such a Huckleberry," she laughs, pulling him up from ground and standing on the tip of her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. The crowd of students erupt in applause but Lucas simply focuses on the scent of acrylic paint and body spray surrounding her and the warmth of her body pressed against his and how he is so damn lucky to have her in his life.

When the day arrives, he shows up at her apartment with a corsage in one hand and a bag of French fries from her favorite place in the other, something she had been craving all day and hadn't had the time to get. It's Katy who opens the door, smiling as he pulls him inside, raving about how handsome he looks in his black tux while Shawn looks on from the kitchen, arms crossed and stance firm as he stares daggers at Lucas. Maya comes out of her room looking almost like a modern Rapunzel in a floor length lilac dress and her hair up in what looks like a very complicated updo with a few loose curls framing her face. Lucas's jaw nearly drops to the ground as he takes in the sight of his best friend looking much like one of her own beautiful works of art.

"Did you bring me French fries," she asks, excitedly, walking to him and taking the bag from his hand while he stays there motionless.

"You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life," he tells her, his voice traced with a sense of awe and disbelief, not even wincing at the fact that he had practically confessed his feelings for her. She looks up from her bag of fast food, her lips curving up in that small half smile, half smirk that sent his heart racing. She puts one hand on his cheek, pulling him down to place a soft kiss on his other.

"C'mon, Lucas. Let's get out of here."

At the prom, Lucas wins prom king (no surprise there) and takes his crown and places it on Maya's head, where it remains for most of the evening. When he goes over to get some punch for them, he overhears her crush of the moment say something to his friend about how he was relived he hadn't asked Maya out after all.

"Lucas is totally into her. Can you imagine if I would have asked her out? I'd be in the hospital right now."

He keeps the comment to himself, deciding Maya would not benefit from knowing about what almost happened and simply walks back to her, hands her a cup of punch and happily receives her offer to go out and dance more.

Nope, Maya Hart did not need to know that at all.

 **vii.**

The dorm rooms are not co-ed but Lucas and Maya still find themselves spending almost every minute of their free time in each other's rooms, sleeping, doing homework or watching TV. They even give each other copies of their room keys so that they can be in there waiting for the other to get out of class, much to the dismay of their respective roommates. It's not that they're a couple or anything but only having each other in the same university makes it kind of impossible to hang out with anyone else. Maya's roommate asks her all the time if they're dating "yet" and every time she replies that they're not, she sighs and goes back to doing her homework. She gets tired of being asked this question so many times that she purposely goes out to try and find a boyfriend and find him she does. He's smart and has cute freckles on his face so she decides it wouldn't hurt to try. Anything to get her annoying roommate to stop asking her questions about Lucas.

Maya's new boyfriend, Ethan, always takes her out on dates to museums and restaurants and although it hurts Lucas to see her with someone else, she always genuinely looks happy when she comes home to tell him about her dates. She'll rip her heels off of her feet, take all the makeup off her face and cuddles beside Lucas as they watch TV and she gives him all the details. Sometimes Lucas thinks that she's in a way cheating on Ethan with him, coming home to another guy, but he knows he's the only one who sees it romantically and Maya sees them as just friends. He doesn't want it to stop so he doesn't tell her about it.

It isn't until months later, when Lucas is sitting at Maya's desk as usual doing his political science essay and waiting for her to get home that he meets Ethan. He knocks on the door and Lucas gets up to answer it, being met by a confused man about four inches shorter than him with a giant stack of books in his hands.

"Are you Ethan," Lucas asks, biting his cheek to keep from laughing at how funny he looks carrying everything and looking as if he's about to tip over.

"I, I don't think I have the right dorm room," he gulps nervously, and turns on his heel about to walk away.

"This is Maya's dorm room if you were wondering. She should be back soon if you want to come in and wait," he smiles, taking some of his books to help him inside.

"How did you get in here," he asks, sitting down on one of the beds.

"I have a key," Lucas says nonchalantly, going back to typing his essay. They stay in silence until Maya bursts through the door, throwing her bag on the door and immediately going over to Lucas to wrap her arms around his torso from behind and rest her head on top of his.

"If you care about me, please just kill me. I can't take that stupid misogynistic professor anymore," she groans. She then opens her eyes to see Ethan sitting on her bed, awkwardly holding a textbook in his hands in silence as he watched the scene before him moments ago. "Oh hey, babe," she smiles, Lucas knowing exactly that it's one of her fake and awkward gestures.

Lucas gets his things and leaves, tells Maya that he'll talk to her later and waves a quick goodbye to Ethan even though he wasn't exactly paying attention to him. Hours after leaving when he's sitting in his dorm having finally perfected his assignment, Maya comes in with bags of ice cream and candy and Lucas knows exactly what that means.

"This story though is the best one by far," Maya tells him, sitting across Lucas on the carpet with a tub of ice cream in between them. "He actually had the audacity to try and make me choose between him and you."

Lucas raises an eyebrow, trying not to smirk as Maya throws her head back laughing, her mouth filled with cookie dough ice cream.

"I told him that to even ask that of me meant he didn't know me at all. Of course I'd pick you."

"And why's that," Lucas asks cheekily, taking another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

"Because you're my best friend." It's not something he hadn't heard before. Although it had taken a few years, Maya had often reminded him of the fact that's they were each other's best friends. But this time, the way she said it while holding a sparkle in her eyes and nothing but pure honesty in her voice, made Lucas believe for the first time that maybe Maya reciprocated his feelings.

And the way her lips ended up pressed against his and their hands ended up intwined as they slept through the night together only confirmed that she did.


End file.
